Please note: You need to have 'Active content' enabled in your IE browser in order to see the index of articles on this webpage

Zuma says summit must "force" Zimbabwe deal

Reuters

Fri 7 Nov 2008,
7:25 GMT

(Adds background, further Zuma quote)

By Wendell
Roelf

CAPE TOWN, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Southern African leaders must "force"
Zimbabwe's sparring parties to break the deadlock over a power-sharing deal
at a summit this weekend, South Africa's ANC leader Jacob Zuma said on
Friday.

"As far as I'm concerned SADC must make those Zimbabweans
reach an agreement," Zuma told Reuters after a speech to the Cape Town Press
Club. "They must force them."

The 15-Nation SADC (Southern African
Development Community) is due to meet in Johannesburg on Sunday to try and
solve an impasse between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai over allocating cabinet posts under a September
power-sharing deal.

"I believe that the Zimbabwean matter does not end
within the borders of Zimbabwe, it impacts on all of us and for that reason
we must force them to stop making us feel the impact," Zuma, leader of the
ruling African National Congress, said.

South Africa's government
said on Thursday it would take a tough stand at the summit over Zimbabwe.
This was a sharp change from the style of former President Thabo Mbeki,
whose softly-softly approach as official southern African mediator has been
criticised as ineffective.

Zimbabwe's economic crisis has forced millions
of its citizens to flee the country, with an estimated three million
Zimbabweans in neighbouring South Africa alone.

Establishing a unity
government is seen as critical to reversing economic meltdown in the
southern African nation where inflation is officially 231 million percent.
Even under government price controls, the cost of bread is doubling every
week.

Zimbabweans are struggling to survive amid widespread shortages of
meat, milk and other basic commodities as a result of the collapse of the
agricultural sector. The country is dependent on food handouts and
malnutrition is on the rise.

Tsvangirai, who would become prime
minister under the power-sharing deal, has accused Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF
of trying to seize the lion's share of important ministries in order to
relegate the MDC to the role of junior partner. (Writing by Marius Bosch;
Editing by Giles Elgood)

African leaders to
pile pressure on Mugabe

Southern African leaders will pile pressure on Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe and opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai at a summit
on Sunday to end their feud on forming a unity government.

The
emergency summit of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community
(SADC) in Johannesburg is the highest-profile effort yet tosave a
power-sharing deal signed on September 15.

The agreement, brokered by
former South African president Thabo Mbeki, calls for 84-year-old Mugabe to
remain as president while Tsvangirai takes the new post of prime
minister.

But the deal is teetering on the verge of collapse over a
protracted dispute on which party will control the most powerful ministries,
especially Home Affairs which oversees the police.

SADC's security
arm has held two summits over the last three weeks in failed bids to break
the deadlock, pushing the region into a last-ditch effort to save the deal
on Sunday.

"It is difficult to be optimistic about Sunday's summit," said
University of Zimbabwe political science professor Eldred
Masungure.

The so-called "quiet diplomacy" championed by Mbeki -- which
avoids public criticism of Mugabe -- has so far failed to produce a workable
arrangement between the ruling Zanu-PF and Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), said Masungure.

"Sufficient pressure has to
be put, particulary on Zanu-PF to concede the Home Affairs Ministry to MDC,"
he said.

"A muscular approach is needed from SADC, rather than continue
with quiet diplomacy," Masungure added.

Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in
a first-round presidential vote in March, but pulled out of a June run-off,
accusing the regime of orchestrating deadly political violence against his
supporters.

Amnesty International estimates that 180 people, mostly MDC
supporters, have been killed and 9 000 injured in politically-motivated
attacks since March.

Many members of the SADC club are reluctant to
criticise Mugabe, while others fail to uphold democracy themselves, said
Takavafira Zhou, a political scientist from the Great Zimbabwe
University.

"The problem which SADC has is that since it was formed by
former liberation parties, it might want to protect one of their own," he
said.

"The other problem is that we have countries in the region like
Swaziland who do not have elections because of the monarchy. How can they
talk of free elections when they don't have them," Zhou added.

Mugabe
has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, and was once hailed as a
liberation hero in a country that had been among Africa's most
promising.

Now the economy lies in tatters, ripped apart by the world's
highest rate of inflation, last estimated at 231-million percent a
year.

Nearly half the population requires emergency food aid, while
unemployment stands at more than 80%.

Some neighbours like Botswana
have taken a tough line against Mugabe, in part because his economic
management has produced a flood of migrants seeking work outside Zimbabwe's
borders.

Botswana has called for a re-run of Zimbabwe's election -- a
suggestion angrily dismissed by the regime.

Economic powerhouse South
Africa also made tough remarks ahead of the summit, with government
spokesperson Themba Maseko warning that Zimbabwe's crisis "is becoming a
major political hindrance to the stability" of the region.

The
question is whether Mugabe will respond to whatever pressure the region
musters at the summit, said Heidi Holland, a biographer of the
president.

"I personally don't think that African countries, including
South Africa, have as much leverage as people say," she said.

"The
problem is that you are dealing with a man who genuinely and absolutely does
not care about his people and their suffering." - AFP

Civil
society groups to demonstrate at SADC summit

Zimbabwe's political rivals will be under pressure from both civil
society groups and regional leaders Sunday, to put aside their differences
and form a new government. Activists from several pressure groups based in
South Africa will demonstrate at the Sandton Convention Centre in
Johannesburg insisting, 'this should be the last summit on Zimbabwe.' John
Vincent Chikwari, the Secretary General of the Revolutionary Youth Movement
of Zimbabwe, told Newsreel they would demand that ZANU PF show more
sincerity towards the MDC.

The group also blamed Mugabe's regime for
not owning up to the massive humanitarian crisis and said NGO's should be
allowed to do their work unhindered. Sunday's protests will join together
members from the National Constitutional Assembly, Crisis Coalition in
Zimbabwe SA Chapter, Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum, MDC Activists Association
and the Revolutionary Youth Movement, amongst others. Chikwari said
Zimbabweans are looking for solutions to the problems affecting the economy,
education, health, plus the dire humanitarian situation. In the absence of
an inclusive government the crisis is expected to continue.

But all
signs point to another deadlock at the summit. The MDC expressed concern at
increasing incidents of violence and the abduction and arrest of several of
their members. Around 25 MDC supporters were brutally attacked in Epworth
and 5 of them had to be hospitalized at the end of October. A few days later
state security agents in Banket raided the homes of the MDC leadership there
and arrested 9 MDC members, including a two year-old girl. The whereabouts
of those abducted are still not known. The party feels their rivals ZANU PF
have all but 'buried the talks' with this sort of behaviour.

To deflect
attention from the state sponsored violence, ZANU PF meanwhile accused
Botswana of training MDC youths to come and destabilize the country.
Zimbabwe made the charges at an extraordinary meeting of regional security
ministers in Mozambique on Wednesday. The accusations followed a call by
Botswana's President Ian Khama for a re-run of the presidential election, as
another way of breaking the impasse. ZANU PF responded angrily accusing
Botswana of 'extreme provocation.' On Friday Botswana government spokesman
Jeff Ramsey dismissed the accusations as 'baseless' and challenged the
Zimbabwean government to provide evidence.

While protesting civil
society groups exert their own pressure at the conference centre, South
Africa also talked tough on Thursday. Government spokesman Themba Maseko
said; 'The region cannot be held to ransom by parties who are failing to
reach agreement on the allocation of cabinet posts. This is becoming a
matter of extreme concern for us and we will be taking quite a hard stance
to make sure that agreement is reached.'

Analysts predict the MDC will
not make any concessions regarding control of the Home Affairs Ministry and
any progress would have to rely on Mugabe being reasonable for once.
Unfortunately the ZANU PF leader appears more interested in holding onto
power and in protecting the security chiefs who secured his violent
re-election.

'No chemistry' between Zim rivals

Zimbabwe's
political factions were bitterly and deeply estranged heading into a weekend
summit at which regional heavyweight South Africa and other neighbours were
to push them hard to share power.

Both Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement
for Democratic Change say they want resolution so they can turn their
attention to rescuing their country from economic collapse.

But
there was little prospect of a breakthrough at Sunday's summit of the
Southern African Development Community, the 15-member regional bloc that has
been shepherding Zimbabwe negotiations for more than a year.

South
Africa, which will chair Sunday's meeting, expressed impatience with both
sides nearly two months after they signed the broad outlines of a
power-sharing deal under which Mugabe was to remain president and Tsvangirai
become prime minister.

South African
government spokesperson Themba Maseko told reporters South Africa will take
"quite a hard stance" on Sunday to push for resolution.

Botswana, another member of the regional bloc, has been even blunter,
placing the blame for the deadlock on Mugabe and calling for new elections
in Zimbabwe. That sparked charges from Mugabe's government that Botswana had
trained opposition activists to destabilize Zimbabwe. Botswana denied the
accusations.

Political analyst Sydney Masamvu said impatience
among Zimbabwe's neighbors may be fueled by the need to focus on new crises
like the conflict in eastern Congo, which also was on the agenda
Sunday.

But he said leaders will find it difficult to make progress
on Zimbabwe with Mugabe cronies in politics and the military resisting
surrendering power - for fear either of being dragged to court for human
rights violations, or of losing access to state coffers.

In
addition, Tsvangirai won't be "frog-marched into an agreement," Masamvu
said. Some of Tsvangirai's traditional supporters already have accused him
of giving too much by allowing Mugabe to remain president, and signing on to
a deal that cannot work.

"There's no chemistry, there's no appetite
for agreement," said Masamvu, southern Africa researcher for the
International Crisis Group, an independent think tank.

A
crackdown on dissent was intensifying in Zimbabwe, with attacks on
Tsvangirai's supporters and arrests of pro-democracy protesters. Zimbabwe
state media, meanwhile, accused the opposition of planning to force Mugabe
from power - unlikely given Tsvangirai's history of nonviolence and Mugabe's
own bloody record after nearly three decades in power - but a stark
illustration of the distrust that separates the two.

Negotiations have stalled on appointing Cabinet ministers. Tsvangirai
accuses Mugabe of trying to hold on to too many of the most powerful posts,
including the police and finance ministries.

Tsvangirai's
spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said in a telephone interview from Zimbabwe's
capital that even if they emerge from Sunday's summit with an agreement,
working together in the same government is "not going to be
easy."

But "people are suffering. People are dying," Chamisa
said. "We need to find a way forward."

Zimbabwe Information
Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said in an interview that "as far as the ruling
party is concerned, we should have had an agreement long ago."

But Ndlovu also repeated his government's charges that opposition leaders
were being manipulated by former colonial power Britain into resisting
agreement. The opposition rejects such charges as arrogant and
insulting.

Opposition spokesperson Chamisa said that if no
progress on power-sharing was made Sunday, his faction would turn to the
African Union and the United Nations to ask them to oversee new
elections.

Lovemore Madhuku, head of Zimbabwe's independent
National Constitutional Assembly, said ordinary Zimbabweans were ready to
take matters into their own hands. His alliance of civic and labor groups
plans street protests starting days after the summit to pressure Mugabe,
even though protests have been violently dispersed by police in the
past.

"Zimbabweans have not been listened to. The international
community has not been listened to," Madhuku said. But "the most important
front is the front of the people on the ground here. They must do more. That
is the way forward." - Sapa-AP

Mugabe
takes SADC leaders for a ride

THE extra-ordinary meeting of the SADC heads of state scheduled
for Sunday will take place against a backdrop of two events that may have a
bearing on the outcome.

Across the Atlantic the conduct and the
outcome of the awesome and historic presidential election that unbelievably
catapulted Senator Barack Obama to the White House should have a profound
effect on events electoral in Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, the call yet again by
Botswana President Ian Seretse Khama for a new round of elections in
beleaguered Zimbabwe, this time supervised by the United Nations and under
international observation can no longer be taken lightly.

The just
ended presidential election in the US has a long-distance message for the
people of Zimbabwe. While John McCain conceded defeat graciously and Obama
claimed victory, literally within moments of polls closing, a process to
elect a president which started way back in March has still not led to the
formation of a new government seven months later

If is both unbelievable
and completely at variance with known democratic practices that Zimbabwe's
ship of state continues to flounder in stormy waters rudderless and with an
incapacitated captain at he wheel. Of the large crew only one or two are
anywhere visible. Like the captain they are petrified by a gripping fear of
sinking as the once majestic ship starts to take a list to port.

The
President of Botswana, a man of perspicacity and resolute determination, by
all appearances, has once more proposed what increasingly appears to be the
only logical strategy for rescuing the ship of Zimbabwe - hold another round
of presidential elections under UN supervision.

Patrick Chinamasa, one of
the crew on the crippled ship, immediately went ballistic. His shrill
obscenities left many of the courageous and dignified passengers wondering
why they continued to allow him to insult their intelligence with
impunity.

Chinamasa, now a politician of indeterminate mandate, having
been rejected by the electorate on March 29, cannot be allowed to continue
to pretend that he speaks for anyone.† But on Wednesday he spoke as the SADC
leadership packed their bags once more for Johannesburg to make yet another
attempt - this will surely be the last - at resolving Zimbabwe current
political impasse.

As they proceed to the venue of their latest
palaver, the SADC leaders need to be reminded once more of one home truth
that they have so successfully pretended not to be aware of.

Their
Zimbabwean counterpart, Robert Mugabe, has not intention whatsoever of
making any meaningful power-sharing concessions. He seeks either to remain
in office until 2013 or to die while in office, which ever comes
first.

Here are the facts.

Mugabe clearly has no intention of
sharing, let alone handing over power to anyone in or out of Zanu-PF, least
of all to Movement for Democratic Change leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. He
regards them with total contempt, matched only by that of the talks'
facilitator, Thabo Mbeki. The political establishment, civil society and the
population of Zimbabwe, as well as SADC heads of state, at least the
enlightened among them, are painfully aware of this sad fact. The
politicians trudge along while the people cheer the negotiation process on
half-heartedly in the forlorn hope that perhaps through an act of divine
intervention Mugabe will either be visited by a streak of benevolence or
will simply drop dead.

But then miracles never happen by design or
strategy.

In fairness to Mugabe, he has never concealed his real
intentions. There is no line of succession within Zanu-PF. While he is 84
years of age, his Number Two Joseph Msika is a year older at 85.

The
most burning issue of Zanu-PF's internal politics has over the years been
the total absence of any discernible line of succession to the party's
president and secretary general, Mugabe. One of Mugabe's greatest weaknesses
as President was his failure to groom a successor. Perhaps it was the
greatest strength or strategy of his authoritarian hold on power. The
so-called succession wars allegedly pitying former army supremo, Solomon
Tapfumaneyi Mujuru, wealthy spouse of Vice President Joice Mujuru, against
Mugabe's flavour of the month, Emmerson Mnangagwa, are mostly creations of
the media fraternity.

Now if Mugabe has over the years refused to
brook the prospect of a successor to the throne from among those who stood
by his side in Maputo, while guiding the struggle against colonialism with
him, on what basis has anyone believed that he would accept a successor or a
power-sharing partner from outside Zanu-PF.

"Never, ever, ever,"
Mugabe declared without equivocation during the campaign for the March 29.†
Tsvangirai would never become President of Zimbabwe. This sombre statement
was uttered at a time when it had become patently clear, even to Mugabe
himself, that the prospect of victory was tilted heavily in favour of
Tsvangirai, his archrival.

Mugabe could have said Tsvangirai would never
win the election. Optimism is the essence of the election campaign, after
all. But his pronouncement was quite unequivocal; Tsvangirai would never
become President of Zimbabwe, whether or not he won the election.

It
is our fault that we decided not to take him seriously.

The members of
the Joint Operations Command, the power behind the President's throne, made
their own position clear. They would never salute anyone but Mugabe even if
someone else won the elections. Former US President Abraham Lincoln said :
"The ballot is stronger than the bullet."† In Africa Mugabe countered 165
years later: "The bullet is more powerful than the ballot."

Zimbabwe was
clearly headed for turbulent waters.

To prove their point, when Mugabe
lost the election on March 29 ZEC and JOC carted the ballot boxes away to
some secret place. Electoral fraud took place in broad daylight and with
total impunity on the part of the perpetrators. They carried the gun.
Zimbabweans had surrendered their ballots. When they announced the results
five weeks later, the stage had been set for Mugabe's dramatic return to
State House.

There was no going back.

When Mugabe was inaugurated
on June 29 it was on the basis of a stolen victory. Everyone knows that.
Thabo Mbeki knows that. Morgan Tsvangirai knows. Arthur Mutambara is aware.
There is little doubt about the nature of Mugabe's return to power in the
minds of the SADC leaders who gather in Johannesburg on
Sunday.

Mugabe and his cohorts have invested much emotionally and
materially to remain in power. Judging from the utterances of Chinamasa they
will not negotiate their way out. Their strategy is to buy time and to
extract concessions

The peaceful campaign up to March 29 was part of
the grand Zanu-PF scheme. They would simply snatch victory from Tsvangirai's
inept hands anyway after the elections.

To add insult to injury the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has never offered a plausible explanation for
the five-week delay in announcing the presidential election. They hold the
public in contempt. But this fuelled speculation that the commissioners and
others were busy stuffing ballot boxes.

The recent dreadful fiasco
over the murder of ZEC official, Ignatius Mushangwe, has now served to
dispel any lingering doubt that the March 29 election was, indeed, rigged.
Any failure by the authorities to open an inquest into the circumstances
surrounding this brutal murder will remain an open admission of
guilt.

If Chinamasa can, with total impunity, doctor an official document
waiting to be signed after months of negotiation, George Chiweshe will cook
election results, also with total impunity.

To
Zanu-PF letting go of the Ministries of Defence and of Home Affairs is
tantamount to passing a death sentence on those who have caused suffering
among millions of Zimbabweans, while rigging elections and orchestrating
massacres in order to remain in office.

These are the facts before
the SADC leaders on Sunday. It is doubtful they will rise to the challenge
of the momentous task that faces them.

It is for these and other reasons
that Khama's proposal for a fresh round of elections makes so much sense,
whatever Chinamasa may have to say.

Zanu-PF is surely a party of the
people. Mugabe won a landslide victory only four months ago. He should
welcome an opportunity to confound the MDC leader once more.

"I sincerely hope that President
Mugabe will no longer disappoint the international community… the crisis talks
have been taking too long."

United Nations Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon, 29 October
2008

Introduction

On
Monday 15 September 2008, a historic agreement was signed in Harare between the
Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu PF) and the two Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) Formations on resolving the challenges facing
Zimbabwe.

The agreement comprises 25 "Articles" and lists the points of
agreement reached under each.

The preamble acknowledges "the challenges
that we have faced as a country and the multiple threats to the well-being of
our people and, therefore, to resolve these permanently."

Commitments
made by the three political parties in the preamble
include:

Dedicating ourselves to putting our people and the
country first by arresting the fall in living standards and reversing the
decline of the economy.

Building a society free of violence, intimidation,
hatred, patronage, corruption and founded on justice, fairness, openness,
transparency, dignity and equality.

Article II:† Declaration of Commitment, states:†
"The Parties hereby declare and agree to work together to create a genuine,
viable, permanent, sustainable and nationally acceptable solution to the
Zimbabwean situation and in particular to implement the following agreement with
the aims of resolving once and for all the current political and economic
situations and charting a new political direction for the country."

Flaws
in the fragile power-sharing agreement soon became apparent however, amid
concerns that delays in forming a unity government were exacerbating the
humanitarian crisis and dashing hopes of an inflow of aid.

One of the
main stumbling blocks was the unresolved allocation of ministries.†

On
11 October, the state-controlled Herald newspaper published a list of ministries
to be controlled by Mugabe, including defence, home affairs (which controls the
police), justice and foreign affairs.† This would ensure that Mugabe maintained
his grip on the security forces and therefore continued to secure his power
base.† Clearly this could also serve to protect his military chiefs who are
reported to fear prosecution under the agreement.

On 24 October, the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper
reported that opposition party leaders and diplomats had described the actual
power-sharing signed on 15 September as a "forgery" after it was discovered the
document was an altered version of the original one agreed to on 11
September.

Almost a week later, Tomaz Salomao, the Secretary-General of
the Southern African Development Community (SADC), admitted the power-sharing
deal signed had been fraudulently altered and pledged the issue would be
resolved.

Welshman Ncube, the Mutambara-MDC's chief negotiator, confirmed
there had been alterations and that two paragraphs were missing.† He said that
former Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa (Zanu PF), who had been given the
document on a computer disc by South African officials to prepare a legal
document, had admitted to altering one of the paragraphs and "accidentally"
deleting two of the other clauses. (http://tinyurl.com/6ypjvh).

Following
the failure of the SADC Troika on Politics, Defence and Security to resolve the
political impasse last month, SADC will hold an extraordinary meeting on the
situation in South Africa on Sunday 9 November.A perspective of
the meltdown in Zimbabwe

To ramp up the pressure, Zimbabwe's
National Constitutional Assembly and other organisations are planning to embark
on mass protest action next week to push for the setting up of a transitional
government to immediately address the desperate humanitarian
crisis.

Zimbabwe faces yet another disastrous agricultural year as most
farmers have not received fertilizer or seed and in many parts the land has yet
to be prepared.

The health crisis escalates by the day and the current
outbreak of cholera is the worst in the country's history.† Famine, disease and
the collapse of the health care sector are claiming lives at the rate of 4 000
each week, a staggering 16 000 every month.† Hundreds of infants are dying
countrywide, many due to kwashiorkor, a disease caused by acute under-nutrition
and a lack of proteins.

From mid October, medical staff at Harare Central
Hospital and the Parirenyatwa hospital have been turning away patients, telling
them the hospitals were closed.†

'There are no drips, no antibiotics, no
sutures and anaesthetics for operations, it is better we close.† What we have
now is a system that endangers the lives of patients," said a nurse, speaking on
condition of anonymity to the Zimbabwe Standard.

The collapse of
Zimbabwe's education system, once heralded as sub-Saharan Africa's finest, has
been compared by Raymond Majongwe, secretary-general of the Progressive
Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe, to countries that are experiencing civil strife or
fully-fledged war.†

Since the school year began in January, the
country's 4.5 million pupils have had a total of 23 days uninterrupted in the
classroom.†† To avoid the humiliation of total failure in 2008, the government
has not cancelled the academic year, despite repeated calls from the Progressive
Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, with the Ministry of Education continuing with
farcical public examinations.††

Six teachers were murdered and thousands
assaulted by Zanu PF militia in the violence that marred the second-round
presidential election on June 27.†VIOLATIONS OF THE
POWER-SHARING AGREEMENT

The following selection of articles
published in the media provides a perspective of the ongoing violations of the
agreement.† They demonstrate that Mugabe and his Joint Operations Command (JOC)
have no intention of relinquishing their stranglehold on power and, in many
instances, it is "business as usual".

ARTICLE XVI:†
HUMANITARIAN AND FOOD ASSISTANCEStipulations in the agreement
include:

(a) that in the fulfillment of its obligations above,
the Government and all State Institutions and quasi State Institutions shall
render humanitarian and food assistance without discrimination on the grounds of
race, ethnicity, gender, political affiliation or
religion;

(b) that humanitarian interventions rendered by
Non-Governmental Organisations, shall be provided without discrimination on the
grounds of race, ethnicity, gender, political affiliation and
religion.

(c) that all displaced persons shall be entitled to
humanitarian and food assistance to enable them to return and settle in their
original homes and that social welfare organisations shall be allowed to render
such assistance as might be required…

Police and war vets block MDC food distribution
to orphans17 October 2008 - SW Radio Africa

As millions of Zimbabweans face a daily battle to
survive, it is becoming clear that Zanu PF continues to hold the nation hostage
- this after police and war veterans prevented the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) from distributing critically needed food to hungry orphans in the
Nyanga rural district in the eastern Manicaland province last
week….

Numerous children, the smallest and youngest victims of
the country's combined crises, have already died from the hunger related disease
of kwashiorkor….

Food aid is becoming daily more critical after Mugabe
only partially lifted his government's ban on foreign aid, imposed in June. A
United Nations assessment report predicted that up to 5 million Zimbabweans
would face starvation in January...

According to international relief and development
agency, World Vision, the chronic food shortages are the worst the country has
ever seen. The group's Director of Humanitarian Emergency Affairs for Zimbabwe,
Daniel Muchena, (said) the crisis had affected urban areas just as badly because
of the economic collapse, and all sectors of the country would soon be reliant
on food aid.

Despite this clear need for food, there has been no change
in the minds of the Zanu PF controlled police and war veterans.

According to the MDC's social welfare officer for
Manicaland, Lloyd Mahute, police and ex-combatants told MDC officials that they
could not give food to people because they did not have permission to do so from
Robert Mugabe's government - this despite the power sharing agreement signed by
Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

According to Mahute, armed
police, backed by war vets, some of whom were wearing ruling Zanu PF party
regalia, last week stormed Ruwangwe rural business centre in Nyanga and ordered
villagers who had gathered to receive food packs to disperse empty handed.

The MDC had sourced the food from charitable
organisations for distribution to about 500 vulnerable households in Nyanga, the
majority of which are parentless homes.

Mahute said that more than 10 tons of food including
maize meal, cooking oil, salt, sugar beans and dried fish is now locked up in
warehouses because it cannot be given to the hungry.

Sky News has
obtained new evidence of the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe where
children are dying of starvation because of food shortages.

Filming
secretly inside the country, we also found proof that Robert Mugabe is using his
security forces to try to hide the crisis from the world. In one hospital ward
in the eastern province of Manicaland we saw 15 children suffering from severe
malnutrition….† One girl, aged four, could no longer stand because she was so
weak.

An officer, speaking to us anonymously, told us he was among a team
ordered to "intimidate and harass" the senior staff into concealing the number
of starving children they are treating.

He said the nurses were warned
they faced arrest if they admitted to anyone that there were malnourished
children in the wards.

But one nurse, again speaking anonymously, told us
there had been a significant increase in the number of starving children being
admitted and in the number dying….

"Malnutrition among children is a
silent emergency," Geoff Foster, a British paediatrician working in Zimbabwe,
said. "Children are dying quietly in the villages."

…The police officer
who spoke to Sky News said that aid agencies were being targeted by a campaign
of harassment. "There are roadblocks and we are ordered to search all of their
vehicles and we take some of the food that is meant to be used as aid," he
said.

Aid agencies have accused Robert Mugabe of cutting
their lifeline to millions of starving Zimbabweans after he imposed sweeping new
bank restrictions which have made it impossible for them to finance their
operations.

… The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has cancelled the inter-bank
money transfer system used by businesses and aid agencies to move cash
around.

With daily cash withdrawals limited to Z$50,000 a day - worth
just £1.20 given Zimbabwe's current soaring inflation rate - it has become
impossible for relief workers to make the large payments necessary to buy and
distribute food or pay staff wages….

"We cannot get money from the banks
to pay people to distribute the food, it is as simple as that," said the
operations manager of one of the top three distributing agencies.

"We
have enough food in the warehouse to ensure no one starves, and we have enough
money in the bank to finance our operations, but the Reserve Bank will not give
us access to it."…

Mr Mugabe banned all non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) from working in rural areas after he lost the first round of the
presidential elections to Mr Tsvangirai….

David Coltart, an MDC MP from
the country's second city, Bulawayo, said he has had a harrowing week in his
urban constituency.

"The food shortage is catastrophic," he said. "There
are HIV Aids patients on anti-retrovirals who have not had adequate food
supplies for two months and some of them are at death's door. There are probably
25 000 others in my constituency alone also at death's door…. About two million
people need food now, and it will be five million by January. The situation is
absolutely critical."

The distribution
of agricultural inputs such as maize seed and fertiliser for the 2008/09 season
has become the domain of Zimbabwe's military and President Robert Mugabe's Zanu
PF party….

"We received an instruction that the government had purchased
all the seed (through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe) and would be responsible for
distribution to the farmers," an official who declined to be identified told
IRIN….

The commander of Zimbabwe's defence forces, General Constantine
Chiwenga, assisted by senior military officials, has been given the
responsibility of identifying the beneficiaries of agricultural inputs, and
maize seed and fertiliser have been handed out at Zanu PF rallies to party
members and senior government officials.

A Zanu PF member in Marondera, a
large town in Mashonaland East Province, told IRIN that senior army officers
responsible for seed distribution were diverting it to the parallel
market….

"Known or suspected Movement for Democratic Change supporters
did not receive any maize seed or fertiliser from the soldiers…," he
said.

The
hunger in Zimbabwe is at crisis proportions. The following link contains an
account of one starving family that is typical of possibly thousands of others
at this time - http://tinyurl.com/5ety99. The image below shows a Zimbabwean
infant in suffering from Kwashiorkor, a famine related disease increasingly seen
in Zimbabwe. The report contains more images.

ARTICLE XVIII: SECURITY OF PERSONS AND PREVENTION
OF VIOLENCEStipulations
in the agreement include:

(a) to promote the values and practices of
tolerance, respect, non-violence and dialogue as means of resolving political
differences;

(b) to renounce and desist from the promotion and use of
violence, under whatever name called, as a means of attaining political
ends;

(c) that the Government shall apply the laws of the country fully
and impartially in bringing all perpetrators of politically motivated violence
to book;

(d) that all political parties, other organisations and their
leaders shall commit themselves to do everything to stop and prevent all forms
of political violence, including by non-State actors and shall consistently
appeal to their members to desist from violence;

(e) to take all measures
necessary to ensure that the structures and institutions they control are not
engaged in the perpetration of violence.

(g) to work together to ensure
the security of all persons and property;

(h) to work together to ensure
the safety of any displaced persons, their safe return home and their enjoyment
of the full protection of the law.

Violence, which arrested this country after the 29th March
election has reared its ugly head again. Zanu PF has unleashed a new orgy of
brutality and assaults across the whole country. On the 27th of October 2008
over 25 MDC supporters were brutally attacked in Epworth and five of them had to
be hospitalised. In addition, Zanu PF militia has set up two torture bases in
Epworth, Harare.

The bases are in Ward 4 with one at Maulani and another
at Rueben Shopping Centre. The bases are being sponsored and financed by the
losing Zanu PF candidate and former Minister of Mines Amos Midzi. Midzi is also
Zanu PF's chairman for Harare province.

Also involved in running the
bases are, Zanu PF Youth Chairman, Zimbwe and other party cadres Garakara and
Chimandira.

On Thursday 30th October 2008 state security agents in
Banket, Mashonaland West province, raided the homes of MDC leadership and
arrested nine MDC members including a two year-old girl. During the arrests they
looted property including a computer and party documents at the home of MDC's
national executive member, Concilia Chinanzvavana.

However, by Monday the
police had not brought the accused to court. MDC's lawyers then filed an urgent
court application at the High Court compelling the police to bring the arrested
to court or release them as 48 hours had lapsed since their arrests.

But
the police were by Thursday afternoon defying the High Court order. Those in
police custody are, Ward 22 councillor, Fani Tembo, ward coordinator, Lloyd
Tambwa, Fidelis Musona, Fidelis Chiramba and Ernest Mudimu, Chinanzvavana and
her husband Emmanuel Chinanzvavana and a two year-old baby.

Over and
above this, the majority of the MDC elected rural councilors are unable to
execute their mandate due to continuous disruptions, violence and interruptions
by Zanu PF thugs including the former Minister of Local Government, Chiminya
Ignatius Chombo.

In addition, students activist from Zinasu have also
been terrorised. Jennie Williams, Mahlangu and other colleagues from Women Of
Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) are still languishing in Remand Prison in Bulawayo. Over
and above this, over 100 activists from the Women Coalition of Zimbabwe were
arrested on the 28th of October as the SADC Troika meeting sat in
Harare.

Zanu PF's actions portray a Party that has declared war on its
people. A Party that is bankrupt of any genuine solution for Zimbabwe other than
hunger and violence. To the extent that Zanu PF's actions are clearly a breach
of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and an assault on the Global Political
Agreement (GPA) signed on the 15th of September 2008.

It is quiet evident
that Zanu PF has put a full stop to that dialogue. In short Zanu PF has killed
the dialogue despite the hopes, patience and expectations of the people of
Zimbabwe. The bottom line is that Zanu PF must be upfront with the Zimbabwean
people and openly bury the corpse of these talks.ROHR activists released from police
custody without charges30 October 2008 - The Zimbabwean

Six
Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe activists who were arrested on 27
October after a peaceful protest were released next day without any
charges.

(The activists) spent a night at Harare Central police station …
after numerous failed attempts by staff to identify and rescue
them….

…Their detention was kept secret by sympathetic officers who
wanted to protect the detainees from the Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO).

This comes in the wake of reports from ROHR members and the public
that some police officers also fell victim to Zanu PF violence on
Monday.

An ROHR eyewitness who escaped from the Zanu PF headquarters
after the abduction…, saw a police officer in uniform being beaten inside the
headquarters.

She said he was being accused of being sympathetic to
opposition activists and disregarding Zanu PF instructions.

Riot police
in Harare descended on hundreds of women who were peacefully protesting over the
delayed conclusion of the peace talks between Zimbabwe's three major political
parties.

At least 47 women were arrested around 10h00 on Monday 27
October and over 100 were beaten in the city as they were walking to the venue
of the talks scheduled to begin this afternoon.

The Women's Coalition of
Zimbabwe (WCoZ) had mobilized nearly 1 000 women who were tear-gassed and badly
beaten as they regrouped at a spot near the Rainbow Towers where the talks were
expected to be held….

By 11h30, police had set up a roadblock and were
turning away any cars intending to go to the venue of the talks, regardless of
their purpose….

National Coordinator of the WCoZ, Netsai Mushonga, was
among those arrested and information reaching their offices said the group had
been denied access to lawyers…

The organisation said that time was
running out for the millions who are starving in the country.

A protester from Monday's demonstration (near the Rainbow Towers)
was beaten to death, allegedly at Zanu PF's offices in Fourth Street,
Harare.

…Osborne Kachuru from Mbare was abducted immediately after the
demonstration by unidentified men, and bundled into a twin cab truck belonging
to Zanu PF.

A few minutes later three other people were abducted by
youths using a Nissan single cab truck, believed to be owned by Zanu PF
political commissar Eliot Manyika. Manyika was allegedly driving the car and
instructing the youths to beat up some of the protesters.

… Edgar
Chikuvire, the Information Director for the Restoration of Human Rights in
Zimbabwe (ROHR), said their lawyers travelled to Parirenyatwa Hospital in an
effort to positively identify Kachuru's body.(However, they) were turned
away by hospital authorities who told them they needed to bring at least one
relative for the identification exercise.

Kachuru's friends insisted
their colleague was killed inside the Zanu PF office after being brutally
assaulted. Newsreel spoke to several of his friends who said they saw his body
being removed from the Zanu PF office and transferred to the mortuary at
Parirenyatwa.

More than 200 ROHR activists participated in the series of
demonstrations on Monday that brought business to a standstill in
Harare.

Around 300 women from the Women's Coalition also took to the
streets, demanding a unity government be formed urgently. Over 200 students held
another protest decrying the strike by lecturers and the continued closure of
some of their colleges.

Police violently put down all the protests using
tear gas and baton sticks….

The Women's Coalition reported that 47 of
their members were arrested and a further 11 had to seek treatment for injuries
sustained from police beatings…

Hundreds of demonstrating activists (who gathered around the
Harare International Conference Centre, the venue for the SADC Troika meeting),
were arrested at the scene and many others were injured.

…† The peaceful
march was violently crushed by the police who fired shots in the air as well as
tear smoke. The police also beat up the protesters as well as ordinary citizens
who were either queuing at the banks or moving around town….

There are
also reports of more than twenty youth activists who were abducted close to the
venue of the negotiations by militias who were moving around in white trucks
marked Zanu PF….

The demonstration was organized and led by the Youth
Agenda Trust and it involved other youth movements like the Youth Forum,
community youth based organizations as well as student movements such as ZINASU
and Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe.

Hundreds of members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and Men of
Zimbabwe Arise (MOZA) took to the streets of Bulawayo (on 16 October) … to
declare a national disaster and demand immediate food aid for all
Zimbabweans…

On arrival at the Government Complex, the group … sat down
outside the gates whilst a delegation of four elderly women went in to request
that the Regional Department Heads of all the service departments come out and
address the crowd on what is being done to alleviate the humanitarian crisis
facing the country.

The group sat peacefully waiting to be addressed for
45 minutes before five riot police approached the group…. They were forcibly
dispersed by being beaten with baton sticks.

Two leaders, Jenni Williams
and Magodonga Mahlangu, were arrested and taken to Drill Hall….† Three members
received medical treatment for the beatings they received. One has a broken
finger, the other two bruising….http://www.wozazimbabwe.org

Update

On
3 November, WOZA reported that Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu had spent
their third weekend - and a total of 19 days - in Mlondolozi Prison in
Bulawayo.

Despite a High Court appeal on the 27 October, they said there
had still been no response from authorities.

…The influential South
African Council of Churches (SACC) joined the growing list of South African
civil and student bodies condemning the unjust detention of the WOZA
leaders.

"We are very concerned about the welfare of these two courageous
women," said Eddie Makue, SACC General Secretary. "It is ironic that those who
are working for peace are charged with disturbing it, while those with the power
to promote a true and just peace seem to have no interest in doing so," he
added….

ARTICLE XI:† RULE
OF LAW, RESPECT FOR THE CONSTITUTION AND OTHER
LAWSStipulations
in the agreement include:

… Human
Rights Lawyer Gabriel Shumba, from the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, told Newsreel on
(24 October) that the continued detention of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)
leaders "exemplified the intolerance still evident in Zimbabwe."

The
forum and other human rights lobby groups, including Amnesty International,
widely condemned the arrests and called for (Jenni) Williams and (Magodonga)
Mahlangu to be immediately released.

"The situation, including the
desperate humanitarian crisis, is indicative of the fact that Zanu PF is not
willing to let go," Shumba said.

"As long as this is the case,
Zimbabweans will never be accorded the freedoms that are theirs by right."
…

(b) ensuring that all state organs and institutions strictly
observe the principles of the Rule of Law and remain non-partisan and
impartial;

(c) laws and regulations governing state organs and
institutions are strictly adhered to and those violating them be penalised
without fear or favour…Zimbabwe opposition claims
supporters attacked by youth militia31 October 2008 -
Bloomberg

Zimbabwe's main opposition party said 20 of its supporters were
injured when they were attacked by a youth militia loyal to President Robert
Mugabe.

The attackers, known as "Green Bombers" because of their
uniforms, beat opposition members on October 29 at Epworth, outside Harare, the
Movement for Democratic Change….

At least 20 MDC supporters had to seek
medical attention, five of whom were hospitalized. The attacks followed a visit
to the area by former Mines Minister Amos Midzi, who stood as a candidate for
Mugabe's Zanu PF in Epworth in the March 29 election and lost to the
MDC….

One man injured in this week's attacks said Zanu PF was "angry"
because the MDC hasn't signed a final accord on power sharing.

http://tinyurl.com/5ph6moARTICLE VII:† PROMOTION OF EQUALITY, NATIONAL
HEALING, COHESION AND UNITYStipulations in the agreement
include:

c) shall give consideration to the setting up of a mechanism to
properly advise on what measures might be necessary and practicable to achieve
national healing, cohesion and unity in respect of victims of pre and post
independence political conflicts; and

d) will strive to create an
environment of tolerance and respect among Zimbabweans and that all citizens are
treated with dignity and decency irrespective of age, gender, race, ethnicity,
place of origin or political affiliation…

CIO take
over burial of murdered election official30 October 2008 - SW Radio
Africa

After allegedly murdering a whistle blowing Zimbabwe Election
Commission (ZEC) official, state agents last weekend forcibly took the body of
Ignatius Mushangwe from his Waterfalls home and buried it in the Mukumba Village
of Chihota.

A report by the Zimbabwe Times website quoted a family member
as saying Mushangwe was meant to be buried .. in Harare by his
family.

However agents from the notorious Central Intelligence
Organization (CIO) forced his wife and eldest son to sign a letter consenting to
the burial in Chihota….

A source confirmed that the agents claimed they
had orders from the President's Office to carry out a hasty burial.
'

More details are emerging on the murder of Mushangwe who allegedly
spilled the beans on how Mugabe's regime planned to print surplus ballot papers
to rig the June 27 Presidential run-off.

An intelligence source has
claimed that the ZEC director of training and development was, 'murdered by a
hit-squad from the military intelligence, allegedly led by one Staff Sergeant
Makwande, to silence him in an operation that was approved by the Joint
Operations Command (JOC).'…

After being kidnapped in June, Mushangwe's
partially charred body was found dumped in Norton last week.

Liberty
Mupakati, a former civil servant who worked with Mushangwe, told Newsreel on
Thursday that the hasty burial was meant to keep the media away and prevent
photographs and other forms of recording.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's
party leaders and police who are responsible for beating, raping and killing
dissidents must be brought to justice if almost a decade of abuse is to end,
Amnesty International said Friday….

…The international human rights group
said accountability was key. "If the perpetrators are allowed to roam ... they
will do it again," Simeon Mawanza, Amnesty's Zimbabwe researcher, said at (the)
news conference in South Africa…

… Amnesty said the Mugabe government's
deliberate policy of protecting those who have committed human rights violations
in order to maintain its hold on power has allow human rights violations to
escalate.

The report included witness accounts of abuses starting in
2000, when the opposition Movement for Democratic Change first proved itself a
real challenge to Mugabe's Zanu PF party.

(f) work together for the restoration of full productivity on
all agricultural land

New wave of Zim land
grabs7 October 2008 - Daily Dispatch Online†… Some white
farmers, whose property was occupied by squatters in earlier land invasions, now
find themselves the victims of fresh invasions by new bands of squatters
belonging to Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.

Since 2000, the number of white
families has shrunk from about 4 500 to about 400 as Mugabe's militias have
murdered, maimed, looted and laid waste to farms in the name of a "revolutionary
land reform programme" that was launched to rescue the octogenarian leader from
losing an election.

Up to 60 farmers have been subjected to often violent
attempts to drive them from their farms since Mugabe signed the power-sharing
deal with Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, leaders of the Movement for
Democratic Change, last month.

The agreement commits the incoming
Government to carry out a "comprehensive, transparent and non-partisan land
audit ... for the purpose of establishing accountability".

"There has
been a mad rush for free pickings; we are getting reports on a daily basis,"
said David Drury, a lawyer who has fought several cases for dispossessed white
farmers.

"The agreement may well mean that there will be a moratorium on
the process of land seizures. If the process is followed through, they are going
to lose out. So now they want to get a toe-hold on the farms and assert their
possessory rights."

Land grabbers - army officers, magistrates,
agricultural officials, local government officials - are walking into homesteads
and settling in, commandeering farmers' vehicles, furniture and the food in
their fridges.

Didymus Mutasa, the Lands Minister, has signed blank
"offer letters" supposedly conferring right of occupancy, which are then filled
in by the would-be occupiers and waved in the faces of
farmers.

ARTICLE III:† RESTORATION OF ECONOMIC STABILITY
AND GROWTHStipulations in the agreement
include:

(a) to give priority to the restoration of economic stability
and growth in Zimbabwe. The Government will lead the process of developing and
implementing an economic recovery strategy and plan. To that end, the parties
are committed to working together on a full and comprehensive economic programme
to resuscitate Zimbabwe's economy, which will urgently address the issues of
production, food security, poverty and unemployment and the challenges of high
inflation, interest rates and the exchange rate.

(b) to create conditions
that would ensure that the 2008/2009 agricultural season is
productive…

A wave of
land invasions has struck the Eastern Highlands, leaving in its wake 10 000
hectares of torched plantations that will see heavy job losses and a shortage of
timber products next year.

The country's thriving timber industry will
suffer a major setback after illegal settlers set fire to vast tracks of timber
plantations in the Eastern Highlands recently, destroying timber that could have
earned the country billions in foreign currency.

Thousands of hectares of
mostly pine trees were burnt to ashes within hours on once productive estates.
One person, believed to be a commercial farmer, died during the
conflagration….

Notes:1. Numbers are
reported with three significant figures.2. The HHIZ is reported on the last
trading day of the week. 3. The monthly inflation rate is HHIZ(t)/HHIZ(t-4)
- 1 and the annual inflation rate is HHIZ(t)/HHIZ(t-52) - 1.4. The HHIZ
values are numerical estimates. In consequence, they are subject to revision
when new price data are incorporated into the
estimates.

Several journalists were barred from covering the
SADC Troika-mediated talks held in Harare on 27 October 2008 as part of efforts
to break the impasse….

Security details manning the entrance to the
premises of the Rainbow Towers Hotel, where the talks were being held, turned
away a number of freelance journalists who are not accredited with the statutory
Media and Information Commission (MIC) and demanded they produce MIC
accreditation cards allowing them to cover the event.

Accreditation of
journalists by the MIC is no longer compulsory following the December 2007
amendments to the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA).

Previously, on 15 and 16 October 2008, an official from the
Ministry of Information and Publicity approached Brian Hungwe and Peta
Thornycroft, who freelance for foreign media organizations, and ordered them to
leave the hotel where they were mingling with other journalists…

The
official reportedly told the journalists that he was acting on instructions from
his superiors.

MISA-Zimbabwe calls upon the Parliament of Zimbabwe to
repeal the AIPPA as a matter of urgency as it poses serious violations to media
freedom and freedom of expression and also violates the 2002 Banjul Declaration
on the Principles of Freedom of Expression in Africa, which frowns upon
statutory regulation of the media as is the case in Zimbabwe under the
MIC.

… MISA-Zimbabwe reiterates that journalists have the professional
mandate to cover and report on the country's socio-economic and political
developments as they unfold without any hindrance.

Zimpapers
Editors Under Surveillance21 October 2008 - The Zimbabwe Standard

All Zimpapers editors were this year put under surveillance to establish
if they subscribed to the Zanu PF government's policies, the newspaper group's
chief executive officer, Justin Mutasa has said….

Last week, this paper
obtained minutes of (a disciplinary) hearing held on October 7 in Harare, where
the under-fire CEO made shocking revelations about how government made direct
appointments of editors in the group and that Zimpapers' editorial policy was
set to suit individual Ministers of Information.

The Zimpapers' titles in
the past have denied accusations that they operate more like a propaganda tool
of the ruling Zanu PF and government and not as public media.

"The
complainant (Mutasa) told the hearing that editorial standards are not set by
the group chief executive but by the Minister of Information," read the minutes.
"Every incoming minister calls all the editors and expounds to them what he
expects from them. Editors must comply."…

Zimbabwe
in serious breach of SADC tribunal ruling on land

77 farmers were granted a temporary relief to stay on their
farms by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal held in
Namibia in March. However there have been many infringements of this ruling
by the Mugabe regime, as disruptions on commercial farms
continue.

Ben Freeth, one of the affected farmers, said while the SADC
States are taking the law and human rights abuses seriously, the Zimbabwean
government is showing the contempt in which it holds the law and the well
being of its people. Freeth said: "When farmers are being illegally
prevented from farming and the people are starving there is a strong case
for it being termed as a crime against humanity."

The tribunal stated
in March: "Accordingly, we order that the Republic of Zimbabwe shall take no
steps, or permit to be taken, directly or indirectly, whether by its agents
or by orders, to evict from, or interfere with, the peaceful residence on,
and the beneficial use of, their properties in respect of the
applicants/interveners referred to in the previous paragraph, their
employees and the families of such employees."

However, the Zimbabwean
government has been in breach, and in contempt of the orders of the
tribunal, as none of the 77 interveners in the case have "the beneficial use
of their properties", as they are still being denied access to large
portions of their land.

Instead of complying with the demands of the
highest court in the region, the Zimbabwean authorities have responded by
taking steps in the local courts, resulting in three farmers being convicted
and sentenced to vacate their properties, or face a jail sentence. Four
other farmers with SADC tribunal protection are also facing prosecution in
the Zimbabwean courts.

The commercial farmers took the Zimbabwean
government back to the tribunal in July, on a contempt of court issue. The
government was held in contempt of the tribunal and the matter was referred
to the SADC Heads of State at the summit held in August in Johannesburg,
South Africa. The Heads of Governments then referred the issue to their
Ministers of Justice, but Ben Freeth says the farmers are at the moment in
the dark as to what the ministers have done regarding any kind of censure,
since the regime continues to be is in contempt of the tribunal and the SADC
treaty. But no one seems to be doing anything about it.

The affected
farmers say the last couple of months have seen an increase in the number of
'invaders' appearing on properties that had been granted a staying order by
the regional tribunal. Freeth said the country is reeling under severe food
shortages and yet disruptions on commercial farms are continuing and farmers
being blocked from growing food. In the Chiredzi and Chinhoyi areas police
and army generals are at the forefront of the disruptions on the farms,
covered by the SADC tribunal interim relief.

The commercial farmer said a
Senior Assistant Commissioner Veterai, who calls himself 'untouchable,'
continues to live on Farm 30 Hippo Valley Estate, owned by Digby Nesbitt in
Chiredzi. "He has actually been living in Digby Nesbitt's house for months
now, with Digby Nesbitt, and is in complete contempt, and yet no one wants
to touch him because he is an Assistant Commissioner of the
police."

Freeth alleges that a Major General Dube kicked Paul Stidolph
off Grand Parade farm in Karoi and "stole his whole tobacco crop."

In
many cases food grown by the commercial farmers is being deliberately
destroyed, despite the country teetering on the brink of starvation. The
President of the Commercial Farmers Union, Doug Taylor Freeme, who used to
farm 1 600 hectares, had only been able to plant 70 hectares in Makonde
South district.† But just this past Saturday, The UK Sunday Telegraph
reported: "Before he forced his way on to Mr Taylor-Freeme's land last week,
Chief Nemakonde, who is in his late 60s and has several wives and scores of
children, sent men to torch a field of winter wheat stalks, meaning there
will be no hay for cattle."

Freeth told us of another commercial
farmer, Louis Fick, who lost 200 animals who died, when he was stopped from
taking food to them by illegal invaders.

†"One wonders what SADC's
commitment is to justice and the rule of law when they are just allowing
these things to take place and the tribunal to be ignored. What does the
SADC treaty mean if they are not prepared to actually do something about
ensuring that the rule of law is upheld in Zimbabwe?" Freeth
asked.

The SADC tribunal is expected to pass final judgement on the
Zimbabwean farmers' case on November 28th. Freeth said this will be
critical, and a real test to see where the tribunal stands, as far as
property rights are concerned.

Abducted
MDC activists still missing

The
MDC is still trying to locate the whereabouts of the officials and activists
abducted by state security agents last week from their homes in Mashonaland
West province.

Party spokesman, Nelson Chamisa told us on Friday that
despite round the clock efforts to make contact with their activists, they
have been unable to do so.

'This is proving to be more difficult than
we thought. But we haven't forgotten about them, we don't abandon our own,'
Chamisa said. State security agents in Banket raided the homes of the MDC
leadership there and arrested nine members.

During the arrests they
looted property, including a computer and party documents at the home of
MDC's national executive member, Concilia Chinanzvavana. Those still missing
include Ward 22 Councillor Fani Tembo, Ward Coordinator Lloyd Tambwa,
Fidelis Musona, Fidelis Chiramba and Ernest Mudimu, Mrs. Chinanzvavana and
her husband Emmanuel Chinanzvavana. It's believed a two year-old baby
belonging to the Chinanzvana couple is also in custody.

MDC MP for
Makoni central in Manicaland province, John Nyamande, blames ZANU PF leaders
such as former security minister Didymus Mutasa, for inflaming the fragile
truce that exists between the two political parties.

Nyamande cited an
example of a meeting of heads of government from his constituency three
weeks ago, where the new governor in Manicaland, Christopher Mushowe and
Mutasa addressed a meeting at Rusape country club.

'Mutasa told the
audience he was totally against the power-sharing deal and went on to
denounce Morgan Tsvangirai, using all sorts of foul language against him in
front of civil servants. I was glad though that people walked out the moment
he started spitting venomous hate speech,' Nyamande.

He added; 'These are
statements that ignite violence. People like Mutasa should act responsibly
or else the situation in the country will never change.'

Meanwhile
the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) said in its latest report released this
week that cases of political violence and human rights abuses shot up 39
percent from August to September.

Ironically this is in the same period
that the country's political leaders agreed to bury the hatchet and join
hands in a unity government. The ZPP noted that disturbances in September
alone shifted to more extreme forms of violence and abuse, with seven
murders, five rapes and 20 cases of abduction.

'The violence toll
increased by 39 percent from its August level of 964 to 1336 by September
with incidents of murder, rape, kidnapping, assault, looting, harassment,
displacements . . . maintaining a disturbing visibility after the signing of
the 15 September power-sharing Agreement,' the report said.

The ZPP
added in their report; 'Two strands of fear are noticeable in all the 10
provinces; the traditional fear (by victims) of further retribution and the
new fear of guilt, where those associated with the perpetration of violence
are afraid of possible investigations and arrests.'

RBZ
pays back missing millions after Global Fund suspends Zim grants

Zimbabwe's cash strapped Reserve Bank (RBZ) has
managed to come up with more than US$7 million to return to international
donor organisation, the Global Fund - after the group this week suspended
Zimbabwe grants over missing aid donations.

The group froze its
donations to Zimbabwe on Thursday after the central bank was found to have
"diverted" US$7.3 million from funds meant to help millions of seriously ill
people. The missing money was part of the US$12.3 million grant from the
Global Fund to 'Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria'.Zimbabwe's government
requires that all foreign donations to non-governmental organisations be
sent through the RBZ and civic groups have suggested that the funds were
spent by the bank on drumming up political support for ZANU PF, particularly
in the run-up to elections in March and June this year.

Global Fund
executive director Michel Kazatchkine announced on Monday that the donor
group had ordered that funds under its administration in Zimbabwe be placed
under the Additional Safeguards Policy (ASP), which aims to ensure that
funding is used for its intended purpose and not to benefit the government.
On Thursday the group then announced that it had immediately suspended its
current operation in Zimbabwe and said it willnot make the 2009 payment for
more than US$600 million. At its meeting in India on Thursday, Kazatchkine
said the group "will not sign any new grants, even if the fund board
approves future grants to Zimbabwe, unless that money is fully
recovered."

Zimbabwe's central bank, whose Governor Gideon Gono has been
quoted in correspondence with the Global Fund saying that the missing money
was used "for other national priorities", has now returned the US$7.3
million.

"The Global Fund greatly appreciates this development which will
accelerate the live-saving activities of the malaria, tuberculosis and HIV
programs in Zimbabwe," Global Fund's Kazatchkine said Friday.

The
group's board was expected to consider a request by the government for an
additional US$400 million in health care funds. Kazatchkine said the central
bank had also agreed that recipients of aid from the Global Fund would be
able to use U.S. dollars for all transactions in Zimbabwe, eliminating
foreign exchange and inflation risks.

However, it is still not clear if
future donations will be made directly to recipient aid groups, despite NGOs
and the United States Ambassador calling for donations via the RBZ to be
halted.

US
Will No Longer Channel Money Through Reserve Bank

HARARE, November 7
2008 - As the largest donor to humanitarian efforts in Zimbabwe, the United
States said it will no longer channel funds to non-governmental
organizations through the country's Reserve Bank.

The
decision follows an announcement by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis, and Malaria that the reserve bank has failed to honor its
commitment to repay $7 million designated for lifesaving medicines. U.S.
ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee said the bank "diverted" the Global Fund
money to other purposes. For this reason, donor funding should be withheld
from Zimbabwe, and nongovernmental organizations should be permitted to
access it directly, he said.

"We do not want to see the
people of Zimbabwe, who need this money, disadvantaged," said McGee. "What
we do want to see however, is a surefire system to safeguard the money that
is coming into Zimbabwe."

"Through the United Nations, we have
submitted a letter asking the reserve bank to give all nongovernmental
organizations operating here in Zimbabwe the ability to access money from
offshore accounts. We are still waiting for a response," McGee
said.

Leading organizations in Zimbabwe say they cannot carry
out their work because the reserve bank restricts the amount of donor funds
they are able to withdraw. The bank also bans electronic transfers of funds
from nongovernmental organizations to pay for goods and services needed to
distribute emergency food supplies to millions of hungry
Zimbabweans.

"These are brave people, they are doing God's work
trying to help the people of Zimbabwe, and until the government takes these
artificial restraints away from the system, it is going to be very difficult
for nongovernmental organizations to do what they are here in Zimbabwe to
do," said McGee.

SA Anti Torture groups condemn Zimbabwe prison conditions

SANTOC (South African No Torture Consortium), recognising detention of
political activists as a form of torture, welcomes the release on bail of
the two leaders of WOZA (Women of Zimbabwe Arise), Jenni Williams and
Magodonga Mahlangu.

However, SANTOC's members, together with
experts on torture from the pre and post apartheid era, are deeply concerned
about the conditions under which the WOZA leaders were held in Mlondolozi
Prison (Bulawayo) during their three-week detention.

SANTOC
therefore calls on the South African government and SADC to press Robert
Mugabe at this weekend's Summit to grant the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC) immediate access to all Zimbabwean prisons, so that the
ICRC can investigate the conditions under which prisoners are being held,
especially women.

Statement issued at the Meeting on Torture
Rehabilitation in South Africa: Lilliesleaf Resource Centre, Johannesburg,
6/11/08..

These children are the only patients getting treatment - for their cleft lips
- thanks to a team of doctors from the US-based group Operations for Hope.

'Go home'

"Harare Central officially closed down on Friday last week, and at the
Parirenyatwa Hospital, most wards have not been functioning, save for except for
one or two," says Dr Kudzanai Chimedza.

The usually busy reception at Harare Central is
deserted

He is president of the Junior Doctors' Association - the 200-strong Junior
Doctors' Association considered the backbone of the public health delivery
system.

"It's a decision undertaken by senior doctors, citing poor working
conditions," he says.

Hospital authorities asked relatives to come and pick up their sick loved
ones.

They could no longer cope, weighed down by lack of resources.

Rarely does a referral hospital shut services, except in a time of war.

But Zimbabwe gives all the indicators of being at war - it has the world's
highest rate of inflation, which officially stands at 231,000,000%.

'Genocide'

The cost of treatment has shot through the roof, leaving the poor sick very
vulnerable.

"The neglect of the health sector by government is genocide," says Malvern
Nyamutora, vice-chairman of the Junior Doctors' Association.

The patients might be unwell, but government officials are sick in
the head

Nurse at Harare Central Hospital

"To me nothing can explain this better, it's genocide, simple.

"Patients are dying needlessly; drugs are not there; prescription papers are
hard to get, tubes for blood collection are difficult to come by; food for
patients isn't available; surgical operations for patients have been stopped and
doctors are only attending to emergencies only.

“There are no more patients inside the wards, just empty beds.”

At the country's major referral hospital, Parirenyatwa, there are no more
surgical operations.

"The two theatres have been closed, even the one for caesarean operations,"
he says.

"Everyone is being referred to private clinics, and if you don't have money,
you die."

A cholera outbreak has hit the capital's townships, so far claiming more than
20 lives, according to the non-governmental organisation Doctors for Human
Rights.

"The stark reality is that they will be coming to hospital to die, because
there is nobody to care for anyone," Dr Nyamutora says.

The cholera crisis has been compounded by sewer pipes which have burst and
severe water shortages.

"Cholera is treatable, just fluids and tetracycline [an anti-biotic] is
enough, but if you get people dying of this diarrhoea - that explains the state
of the health crisis," Dr Nyamutora says.

Deputy Health Minister Edwin Muguti has acknowledged the crisis in the health
sector, but has put the blame on international sanctions.

These are hurting the economy, putting pressure on the health delivery
system, he says.

'Peanuts'

At Harare Central, student nurses have nothing much to do, even if 70% of the
qualified staff have left to neighbouring countries.

This family live in Epworth which has been hit by a cholera
outbreak

A nurse showed me her September payslip, her salary of Z$12,542 - about 12 US
cents - is not even enough to buy a soft drink.

"This is the misery we are going through," said Beaular, a nurse who asked
for her real name not to be used.

"With these peanuts, the government expects us to come to work, board our
commuter omnibus, and feed our families.

"The patients might be unwell, but government officials are sick in the
head," she said.

Her anger is echoed by other colleagues.

"There is zero dedication to duty, because there is zero concern to our
plight by government," another middle-aged nurse said.

At Parirenyatwa Hospital, the sight of the grave faces of relatives carrying
patients being turned away is heart-wrenching.

Tragedy

Even if someone opts for treatment at expensive private hospitals, people
cannot get access to their cash because of limits on bank withdrawals.

Public hospital are also able to accept money, but have to turn patients away
simply because there are no drugs, nurses, doctors or medicine.

A report by six Zimbabwean doctors compiled just before the controversial
March elections painted a sorry state of affairs.

"Elective surgery has been abandoned in the central hospitals and even
emergency surgery is often dependent on the ability of patients' relatives to
purchase suture materials," it said.

"Pharmacies stand empty and ambulances immobilised for want of spare parts...
this is an unmitigated tragedy, scarcely conceivable just a year ago."

Zimbabwe
blog: saving a baby

Guest blogger Helen describes one mother's plight to feed her
child when food is in short supply.

My heart was lost the moment I
saw baby Tatenda: snuggled up in a towel on his mother's back, the baby
sucked his thumb and stared out of shiny, big brown eyes.

"Can you
help my save my baby?" his mother asked.

I was taking a small bottle of
milk to an elderly neighbour when she stopped me on the road. Her eyes
locked onto the milk, the young woman said she wasn't looking for charity or
money, just information on where to get some protein for her
baby.

Right there on the side of the road I heard
a story which is being replicated in countless homes around
Zimbabwe.

Stella is 22, a single mother and desperately trying to find
enough food to keep her child alive. The baby's name is Tatenda, which means
'thank you' in the local language of Shona, and he is 10 months
old.

Stella was living with Tatenda's father when she fell pregnant but
he refused to accept the child and threw mother and baby
out.

When she first found herself alone with a new baby, it wasn't
too bad. Stella breast fed her son and he slept most of the time in between
feeds and she coped fine.

The problem began when Tatenda was about
six months old and needed more than breast milk. There was (and still is)
nothing to buy in the shops - no baby cereal, flour, wheat, oats, rice or
even bread.

Stella managed to buy some maize (corn) on the black market,
had it ground into meal and she cooks this into a thin porridge for
Tatenda.

Nothing unusual about that as all Zimbabwean babies are weaned
onto maize meal porridge. The problem is that Tatenda can't stomach the
porridge, it doesn't agree with him and after every meal the baby coughs
almost incessantly, sometimes for hours at a time.

Tatenda is losing
weight dramatically and the doctor has told Stella that she must give the
baby high protein food as a matter of urgency if he is going to
survive.

The only protein Stella's been able to get is peanut butter
which she adds to the maize meal porridge. This is a favourite dish here but
it hasn't helped Tatenda at all.

He still coughs, retches and vomits
after every meal of flavoured porridge and now Stella has resorted to
dipping her finger into the peanut butter and Tatenda sucks it
off.

This alone isn't going to be enough for her son and that's why
Stella stopped me in the street. She needs eggs and milk for her son but
can't find them anywhere.

The dairy farm that supplied the town
with milk closed down two months ago. It was the last of four big commercial
diaries still functioning and the closure has left all shops without milk,
yoghurt and lacto (processed sour milk).

The only milk left to buy
must be purchased direct from a small home dairy farm about 15km out of
town. The milk is not pasteurized or packaged and if you can find a way to
get to the farm at milking time you can buy raw milk if you bring your own
container.

Eggs are just as difficult to come by because chicken food is
in critically short supply as is maize, wheat, and soya beans which has
forced most egg producers to cull their hens and close down.

My own
son, now a teenager, used to suck his thumb. Maybe that's why helping this
baby is the least one mother can do for another.

An egg every second day
and half a cup of milk morning and evening is already working wonders. Add
to this a few precious spoonfuls of a wildly expensive, imported wheat-based
baby cereal and Tatenda is already gaining weight.

The fate of
hundreds of thousands of other hungry Zimbabwean babies being supported by
desperately malnourished parents doesn't bear thinking about.

Zimbabwe
teachers say political impasse destroying schools

Fri Nov 7, 6:21 am
ETHARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwean schoolteachers said Friday that the nation's
education system was collapsing because of the deadlock in forging a unity
government.

"Education service delivery has been seriously
compromised and is on the brink of collapse," the Zimbabwe Teachers'
Association (ZIMTA) said in a statement.

"This is a crisis that our
once-vibrant education system is experiencing," it said.

"ZIMTA urges
the nation, the political leaders of all political formations that are
engaged in the negotiations ... expedite the formation of an all-inclusive
government so as to speedily salvage the education system," it
added.

The statement came ahead of a summit of the regional Southern
African Development Community (SADC) on Sunday seeking to goad veteran ruler
Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai into a deal on forming
a cabinet.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed an agreement in Harare on
September 15 that was supposed to pave way for a unity
government.

But bickering over which party takes key ministries has
delayed the formation of a government and deepened Zimbabwe's political and
economic crisis.

Schoolchildren have missed their lessons for the
better part of the year as teachers went on strike over low pay and poor
work conditions.

The few teachers going to work often spent most of their
time selling sweets and stationery while others resort to so-called "remote
control" teaching --† leaving a pupil to take charge of the class while they
attend to personal business.

Zimbabwe
Army ordered to shoot and kill ...

Diamond fields in the Chiadzwa area of
Marange District have turned into bloody battle fields pitting armed members
of the Zimbabwe National Army and brave diamond diggers.

Friday 7
November 2008, by Bruce Sibanda

On Friday four soldiers and two diggers
died in one of the now too frequent battles. Police national spokesperson
Andrew Phiri confirmed the deaths though he say only "a few people
died".

Armed informal diamond miners scraping a living in desperate times
continue to resist attempts by the army to remove them in increasingly
violent clashes.

The diamond fields have attracted thousands of
informal miners in the past two years. Diamond miners are known as
"makorokoza" in the local Shona language.

Shoot to kill
orders

Edmond Chirape, 26 survived the attack and he now walks with a
limp. He says Chiadzwa is now a war zone. " The police and soldiers who
patrol the area say they have one clear instruction that is to shoot to kill
all diggers here"

Chirape, arrived at the site in May, says he has so
far witnessed at least three burials of shot colleagues. One of his friends
he came along with is battling for his life at home.

He would rather
die at home than under guard by the police in a hospital, because the moment
he visit a hospital authorities want to know how you sustained the injuries
before treatment.

The black market

More than 80 percent of
Zimbabweans are unemployed in an economy marked by the highest inflation
rate in the world - now officially at 231 million percent, but unofficially
thought to be many times higher.

Informal miners sell their rough
diamonds to middlemen who, in turn, smuggle them out of the country for sale
at higher prices.

Many of them like Gift Ncube, who trades in foreign
currency, are not short of money. When not digging for diamonds at Chiadzwa,
he lives in a motel in Mutare.

He and many of his fellow diggers can
also afford private medical care. "The doctors can do anything if you have
the foreign currency to pay them and, after all, the referral hospitals or
clinics here are not well equipped in any case."

Diamonds for
prostitutes

Syndicates of informal miners also often have internal
confrontations. "The syndicates accuse each other of encroaching onto
exclusive territory belonging to a certain group or of 'stealing' clients,
Ncube say.

"Fights that emerge out of this have also resulted in death,
and often occur after heavy drinking bouts in the city or other places. I
know of cases where rivals have buried each other alive in the
tunnels."

The diggers spend most of the day in the shafts digging for the
diamonds and sneak out during the night. That is when they have
confrontations with the soldiers and the armed police on horseback. They are
becoming more vicious every day because some of them get killed or are
injured., he says.

The site has also attracted prostitutes who charge in
diamonds or foreign currency.

Hunger
stricken Zimbabweans scrounge for food in Zambia

Severe hunger is forcing Zimbabweans to cross Lake Kariba into
Zambia in search food in the Namafulo, Mweeba and Kanchindu areas in Chief
area in Sinazongwe District.

A local businessman Dodo Sindaza said
most of the Zimbabweans are old men, women, and youths.

Mr. Sindaza
said the situation was bad because the Zimbabweans were selling chickens at
K3, 000 each, to enable them† buy a bag of mealie-meal. He said the
hunger-striken Zimbabweans do not know much about the Zambian currency and
end up selling their commodities below the market value.

One Zimbabwean
Tolo Munkombwe said the hunger situation in Zimbabwe was unbearable as there
was completely no food in that country. Mr. Munkombwe said all the shops
were closed because there was no food in them and people have no money with
which to buy commodities.

He said schools in Binga town have been closed
and teachers have run away due to food shortage.Mr. Munkombwe who is from
Siamwenya Village in Binga Town said people have resorted to batter system
because the Zimbabwean currency has lost value.

"If you want to jump
on a bus to go to any town from Binga, drivers are demanding to be paid a
bag of mealie-meal which is difficult to come accross," Mr. Munkombwe
said.

World
Bank, FAO fund Zimbabwe agric with US$ 21.4 million

Zimbabwe said Friday
it had received US$ 21.4 million in combined agricultural funding from the
World Bank and the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). In a statement,
the government said the funding was intended to cover cropping this year and
finance the procurement of farming inputs, including fertilizers and
seeds.

The World Bank, which has suspended economic aid to the country
over policy differences with the government, will provide US$ 10 million and
FAO US$ 11.4 million.

It said much of the funding would be targeted
at rural farmers, most of whom had been left struggling in the country's
deep-seated economic crisis.

Zimbabwe has been facing food shortages for
years now because of droughts and poor farming policies and is this year
importing hundreds of thousands of tonnes of cereals to avert
starvation.

South Africa has also announced a R300 million farming
package for Zimbabwe in the form of agricultural inputs.

Rebellion
from within

Much like its counterpart in South Africa, Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF
party is facing an internal split. In Zimbabwe's Matabeleland region, one of
the poorest in the country, determined efforts are being made to revive
PF-Zapu, the party disbanded 20 years ago.

PF-Zapu, led by legendary
freedom fighter Dr. Joshua Nkomo, was once a formidable rival to Mugabe's
gang. But in December 1988 Nkomo was persuaded to allow his party to be
absorbed by Zanu-PF in the interests of national unity. It was a grim
mistake, as Nkomo came to realise, and he died in 1999 a disappointed
man.

Many of his colleagues remain politically active within Zimbabwe,
and this year's elections and the long-drawn-out negotations which have
followed them, have led to these veterans feeling sidelined and
frustrated.

A series of meetings, aimed at the re-formation of PF-Zapu,
have been taking place in Matabeleland, and these culminated in a big
gathering at the White City stadium in Bulawayo last Saturday.

Joseph
Msika, once Nkomo's deputy and now a vice-president, was invited to the
meeting, and it was hoped he would agree to lead the newly-formed party. But
Msika failed to show - possibly because Zanu-PF, worried at these
developments, has set up a commission of enquiry to find out what exactly is
going on.

Someone who did turn up was Information Minister Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu, who heads the commission, and who is also, ironically, a former
senior member of PF-Zapu. He tried to get the crowd to chant Zanu-PF
slogans, and was roundly booed for his pains.

Another notable
presence was that of former minister and politburo member Dumiso Dabengwa,
who formally offered to lead the new party. Dabengwa resigned from Zanu-PF
back in February, in order to campaign for the failed presidential bid of
another former minister, Simba Makoni.

Are these manoevres a serious
threat to Robert Mugabe and his party? MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai may well
be reminding himself this week of the principal of divide and conquer. If
Zanu-PF divides itself...who knows?

Mugabe Wants Dabengwa to Rejoin Zanu PF

HARARE, November 6 2008 -
President Robert Mugabe reportedly wants ex Zanu PF politburo member, Dumiso
Dabengwa, to rejoin the party in a bid to stall moves to revive PF Zapu and
save the 1987 Unity Accord.

The unity Accord is
facing collapse following the breakaway by disgruntled former PF Zapu
members.

Dabengwa, who quit Zanu PF in March this year, is
reportedly on the forefront of PF Zapu's revival.

Sources
say Mugabe has since extended an olive branch to Dabengwa, begging him to
reconsider returning to the ruling party, as he fears that the breakaway
could result in total disintegration of the liberation
movement.

Mugabe, according to sources, has since sent
Angeline Masuku, the Matabeleland South governor to convince Dabengwa to
rejoin Zanu PF.

Masuku reportedly convened a meeting on October
19 at her farm where she informed 35 Bulawayo Central committee members
about Mugabe's desire to have Dabengwa back in Zanu PF.

The
members were then tasked to convince Dabengwa to concede to Mugabe's
wish.

Masuku confirmed having held a meeting with central
committee members at her farm but could not be drawn to confirm whether she
had been tasked to hold such a meeting by Mugabe.

Dabengwa
also confirmed to RadioVOP that Zanu PF officials want him back in the party
and confirmed that Masuku had approached him on behalf of Mugabe. Dabengwa
however said he was never going to rejoin Zanu PF.

Tsvangirai
hopes Obama will help

JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe Prime Minister-designate Morgan
Tsvangirayi, hailing the election of Barack Obama as president of the United
States, has said he is looking forward to working with the new
president.

The mainstream MDC leader said he was hopeful that together
they could change Zimbabwe's political fortunes.

Tsvangirayi, on his
way to South Africa for a SADC Summit that seeks to end Zimbabwe's is
embattled country's political deadlock, said the election of Obama would
spur Zimbabwe to aspire for democratic ideals, a dream that has seemed
elusive over the years as President Robert Mugabe's regime continues rigging
elections.

The comments follow Tuesday's election of Democrat Obama's
election to the White House, the first black person to attain the presidency
- after beating Republican nominee John McCain to become the most powerful
man in world politics.

Tsvangirayi, who many believe should have
ascended to the presidency in 2002, had the Mugabe administration not rigged
elections allegedly and won the march 29 presidential election, said the
outcome of US election offered him hope of changing Zimbabwe's waning
political fortunes.

"As both a democrat and an African, it gives me great
joy to congratulate Senator Barack Obama, on his election as President of
the United States of America. In this quest to have Zimbabwe take its
rightful place in the family of democratic nations, I look forward to
working with President Obama, his new administration and the people of the
United States of America. I know that his historic victory has heartened
millions of Zimbabweans, as President-elect Obama's message of hope and
change resonates so strongly with the people of this embattled country," he
said.

The MDC leader said he was hopeful change would come to the
southern African country if free and fair elections were held, like in the
US.

"Zimbabweans appreciate the true value of a vote, the preciousness of
a poll that is conducted openly and fairly, and a result that is respected
by all. This is the dream that we continue to aspire to, the right that we
demand, and the change that we know will come to our country as long as we
stay true to our democratic ideals," he said.

"This result is not
just a victory for him and the American Democratic Party but also for the
people of that great country. For today's events have illustrated once again
the political maturity and tolerance that are the foundations of any true
democracy. Divided during the campaign, the people of the United States are
now unified by this result, pledging to support and work with their new
President for the betterment of their nation."

Embattled Zimbabweans
welcomed the election of Obama, saying they were hopeful he would maintain a
tough stance on the Zanu-PF regime, following his criticism of the country's
leadership during his election campaign.

Mugabe, in power for 28 years
despite calls for him to quit, has blamed Obama's predecessor, George Bush
for the turmoil in his country.

Mugabe says Zimbabwe ready to work with Obama

Reuters

Fri 7 Nov 2008,
10:33 GMT

[-] Text [+] HARARE, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe, whose government is under sanctions by Washington, says he is
ready to work with U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to improve
ties.

In a congratulatory message to Obama, Mugabe made no reference to
the travel and economic sanctions imposed on his ZANU-PF leadership over
charges of election rigging and human rights abuses, or to a deadlock with
the Zimbabwe opposition over a power-sharing deal.

"As the government
and people of Zimbabwe join you in celebrating this event in the history of
the USA, I take this opportunity to assure you...that the government of the
Republic of Zimbabwe remains ready to engage your government in any
desirable endeavour to improve bilateral relations," he said.

The
United States under President George W. Bush joined the European Union and
other Western powers in an international campaign to isolate Mugabe over his
increasingly controversial rule.

But Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's
independence from Britain in 1980, says the West is driving a "racist plot"
to oust him over his seizures of white-owned farms for redistribution to
blacks.

Many analysts blame the farm seizures for an acute economic
crisis that he left the southern African country with severe food shortages
and the world's highest inflation rate of more than 230 million percent.
(Reporting by Cris Chinaka; Editing by Catherine Bosley)

Apology
to Prof Welshman Ncube

WE wish to
take this opportunity to tender to Professor Welshman Ncube, secretary
general of the Arthur Mutambara-led faction of the Movement for Democratic
Change and representative of the same party at the ongoing power-sharing
negotiations, our sincerest apologies for any embarrassment, inconvenience
or ridicule that an article that appeared on this website early this week
might have caused to him.

On Monday, November 3, 2008, we carried on this
website an article in which it was alleged that Prof Ncube had participated
in the alleged doctoring of the September 15 agreement which was signed by
President Robert Mugabe and MDC leaders, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and Prof
Arthur Mutambara, the leaders of the MDC and Zanu-PF.

It was stated
in the article in question that Prof Ncube had participated in the alleged
deed, while acting in concert with Mr Patrick Chinamasa the former Minister
of Justice and a representative of Zanu-PF and Mr Mujanku Gumbi
representative of South Africa's former President Mr Thabo Mbeki at the
ongoing negotiations.

The source of our article was the website of
SWRadio Africa, where the story was published on Friday, October 31. We did
not obtain independent confirmation of the article. It turns out that
SWRadio Africa had sourced its own article from the website of The
Zimbabwean.

On Wednesday we published the full text on an interview on
SWRadio Africa in which Prof Ncube denied he was in any way involved. We had
meanwhile submitted questions to Prof Ncube seeking clarification on the
allegations.

The Zimbabwean has now withdrawn the article as being
totally baseless. Prof Ncube has separately furnished us with an explanation
that leaves us in no doubt that while the document was, indeed, altered by
Mr Chinamasa, his own alleged participation in this activity is totally
without foundation.

Prof Ncube disclosed to The Zimbabwe Times that Mr
Chinamasa voluntarily drew his attention to the fact he had made an
unauthorized alteration in the September 15 agreement.

After this
disclosure Prof Ncube says he and Mr Elton Mangoma, a negotiator
representing the MDC party led by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, had raised the issue
of the alteration with the team of South African facilitators.

"In
answer to the question you have posed please be advised that the matter was
raised by myself and Elton Mangoma with the facilitation team," Prof Ncube
said. "The facilitator agreed that they (the facilitation team) would
prepare a corrected version of the Global Agreement and cause it to be
signed by the three principals.

"You might also wish to know that it
was in fact Mr P. Chinamasa who voluntarily drew our attention to the one
alteration he says he made. This was during the lunch session on the day of
the formal signing ceremony on 15th September 2007. This led us to study the
rest of the document, whereupon we discovered the other two alterations or
rather omissions. We decided that the issue be taken up with the
Facilitator."

It is now patently clear to us that, far from conniving
with Mr Chinamasa to falsify the document, Prof Ncube in fact brought the
matter to the attention of the South African facilitators.

The
article having been withdrawn at origin, we also withdraw it by way of
expunging the story from the Zimbabwe Times website. We extend our sincere
apologies not only to Prof Ncube, but to Mr Gumbi as well.